Monthly Archives for April 2017

We’re strong proponents of finding something you love to do and creating a business around it. Lance Lewsader had such a great time getting out of an escape room attraction a couple of years ago that he decided to create his own and Bolt NWA was born!

Bolt NWA is an Escape Room Experience where customers have one hour to find clues, solve puzzles and work together to escape the room. Bolt has three rotating concept rooms, including Locked!, The Vault and Day Dream. Lance and his team have created a successful business while getting involved closely with their community to serve multiple “bottom lines”.

We start the show with your co-hosts Shannon and Dave getting educated about the Escape Room phenomenon, a fast growing attraction that is increasing in popularity around the country. Lance spends some time discussing Bolt’s history and how they have grown the business quickly, while connecting with their local community and charity organizations.

Not content to just enjoy fast growth of Bolt on his own, Lance has franchised the business concept and explains how that process works. Your hosts are impressed that what usually can be a very complicated process, is just one more way to grow the business to Lance. But enough about success, we also want to know about those all important mistakes that teach Small Business owners so much. For Bolt, it was partnering with friends that got the business off to a rocky start. We wrap up the show with a talk about measuring success, what’s important beyond profit and what obstacles stand in Bolt’s way and how Lance plans to overcome them.

Join us today for a fun show about a fun business concept! Listen in and then visit the Small Business Support Group to comment and ask questions.

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Are you using video to market your Small Business? What problems does it solve and how about problems it can create? Join us today on the Small Business Show where we meet Adam Rahn of Droi Media to find answers to these questions and learn about Adam’s journey from freelancer to Small Business owner.

Adam shares his surprise at just how many “hats” he is now wearing to get his business up and running and how to manage those non-billable hours that can eat up your time as a Small Business owner. Dave and Shannon suggest diving into the EMyth book to learn more about working “on” your business instead of always “in” it and developing an org chart, even if your name fills every job duty.

We also spend some time talking about ways to promote yourself as an expert in your community, how to say no to new business when it is not in your (or your clients) best interest and what methods work well for communicating with new clients.

Winding up the show, we focus on the importance of digging deep to find your niche and keeping yourself creative when creativity is your business.

Join us today on the Small Business Show for these topics and more, then jump over to the Small Business Support Group to share your thoughts!

HR issues can plague small businesses of all sizes, especially once you hit the magic 50-employee number that activates all kinds of regulations and requirements. You need some help!

Today on the Small Business Show, Dave and Shannon meet and talk to Kelly Loudermilk, founder of BuildHR, a human resource outsourcing and consulting firm that can make your Small Business life much better. Come along for the discussion and learn how a few quick questions at a Rotary function set Kelly on the path to launch her own Small Business to help other business owners succeed, while not having to worry about their HR compliance issues.

We touch on topics including recognizing your own expertise to create a business, why you need an employee manual and best practices during the hiring process – because you just never know if that question you really want to ask is actually legal.

Finally, Kelly shares her marketing experiences with Facebook ads, answering questions on Reddit and getting involved in local Chamber of Commerce events.

Join us on episode 114 of the Small Business Show for this and much more, then visit the Small Business Show Support Group on Facebook to discuss the show and get your questions answered!

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In your Small Business, do you value being told when you are wrong? Would you like to have a Revenue Stack that generates cash from multiple sources? Do you know what the Scotty Principle is? Join us on Episode 113 of the Small Business Show for these topics and more!

We all love it when we’re right. But as you know, Dave and Shannon love hearing about mistakes, the “wrongs” that teach us all so much. Are your employees or colleagues comfortable telling you when you’re wrong? Do you encourage it? Dave spends some time on the show explaining a new policy he’s enacted to be sure this happens in his Small Business.

During the past year, we’ve discussed Scott Adams’ book and his Talent Stack concept. Shannon takes the stack concept and applies it to Revenue, discussing concepts to insure you’re not relying on just one source of cash to fuel your Charmed Life. We’ve invited some excellent guests to join us on the Small Business Show in the near future to discuss how they have developed their own Revenue Stacks – stay with us, it’s going to be awesome.

Finally, when you have a Revenue Stack, you’re often faced with hiring outside service providers and contractors to help support those businesses. The guys discuss the Scotty Principle and frustrations with Small Business owners that don’t get the concept of under-promising and over-delivering.

Join us today on the Small Business Show, then head over to our Small Business Support Group to discuss the show and ask questions!

Chapters/Timestamps:

00:00:00 Small Business Show #113 April 5, 2017

00:01:00 Surrounding yourself with people who will tell you when you are “wrong”

No “yes men”

Requesting “You’re Wrong…”

00:05:48 Scott Adams’ Talent Stack

00:07:23 Key to Success: The Revenue Stack

00:08:35 Digging into the Serial vs. Parallel Entrepreneur Concepts

00:14:16 Revenue Stacks require the use of service providers/contractors – Can be frustrating

00:16:50 You’re gonna get paid: show up to do the work!

00:19:17 The Scotty Principle! – Underpromise and overdeliver if you can